1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display apparatus, and more particularly to a plasma display apparatus, which may reduce manufacturing costs and at the same time enhance discharge characteristic and discharge efficiency by improving scan electrode structure and sustain electrode structure.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, a plasma display panel (hereinafter referred to as a PDP) displays images including characters or graphics by light-emitting phosphors using 147 nm vacuum ultraviolet generated during discharging inert mixture gas, such as He+Xe, Ne+Xe, or He+Xe+Ne. The PDP can be easily manufactured to be thin and large and provide highly improved image quality along with the recent development of PDP techniques. Specifically, in a three-electrode AC surface discharge PDP, since wall charges are accumulated on its surface when discharge occurs and electrodes are protected from sputtering caused by the discharge, low voltage driving and long lifespan are achieved.
The conventional plasma display panel has two types, one of which includes both a transparent electrode and a bus electrode (metal electrode), and the other includes only a bus electrode to form a scan electrode and a sustain electrode and drive the panel.
FIG. 1 is a view of illustrating a conventional plasma display panel structure, and FIG. 2 is a view of illustrating a conventional ITO-less plasma display panel structure.
The conventional plasma display panel includes a scan electrode and a sustain electrode formed on the upper substrate, and an address electrode formed on the lower substrate.
The scan electrode and the sustain electrode are made of transparent electrodes Y1, Z1 and metal bus electrodes Y, Z.
In FIG. 1, the transparent electrodes Y1, Z1, which are made of ITO (Indium-Tin-Oxide) on the upper substrate, serve to reduce discharge gap (G) between the electrodes. The metal bus electrodes Y, Z, which are generally made of well-conductive metals such as Cr, Ag, Cu, etc. on the transparent electrodes Y1, Z1, serve to reduce voltage drop by the high resistive transparent electrodes. The metal bus electrodes are made of one metal, or two or more metal layers to prevent the diffusion into the upper dielectric layer.
Transverse barrier ribs 1 and vertical barrier ribs 2 are formed on the lower substrate to define a discharge cell. The transverse barrier ribs 1 are formed in parallel with the scan bus electrode Y or sustain bus electrode Z, and the vertical barrier ribs 2 are formed in parallel with the address electrode.
As the discharge gap G is increased, the discharge efficiency is improved. However, there is a disadvantage that discharge voltage is raised accordingly.
In the conventional plasma display panel, if the transparent electrode is provided, the scan bus electrode Y and sustain bus electrode Z are formed to be partially superposed onto the barrier ribs as shown in FIG. 1, and if the transparent electrode is not provided, the bus electrodes are formed within a discharge space as shown in FIG. 2 to reduce discharge voltage.
At this time, there is a problem that if a part of the bus electrodes Y, Z is formed to be partially superposed onto the transverse barrier ribs 1, then brightness is increased, however, luminescent spot or boundary image sticking phenomenon occurs in the neighboring non-discharge (OFF) cell region by cross-talk.
In addition, there is also problem that if the bus electrodes Y, Z are formed within the discharge space as shown in FIG. 2, then discharge voltage can be lowered, however, brightness is reduced since the aperture ratio of discharge cell is lowered.